


Truth and Consequence

by WishUponADragon



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 06:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20670827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishUponADragon/pseuds/WishUponADragon
Summary: A brief exploration on what some of Peter's classmates must be thinking after that after-credits scene.





	Truth and Consequence

Flash  
The video was everywhere. On every inch of the Internet, far beyond his sphere of influence. Flash stared at the thumbnail of Mysterio’s dead eyed stare and numbly clicked play for the fourth time.   
The now familiar words played and Flash tried to swallow the iron fog that settled in his chest. Spider-Man couldn’t be evil, and yet. There he was. Ordering the attacks that had nearly killed him and their classmates. Flash set his phone on the table and held his head in his hands.   
It was impossible. Even more impossible than Peter Parker, of all people, being Spider-Man. All the times he’d embarrassed Parker or lied about knowing Spider-Man to him ran through Flash’s head. He groaned. How. How was it possible to fuck up that badly. Of course he’d managed it.   
Maybe Parker had attacked everyone because he bullied him. All those anti-bullying campaigns had warned him that something like this would happen, but, well. Parker was Parker. He’d never hurt a fly.   
Then again, he’d never thought he’d be a super hero either.   
No. No. Something had to give. He could have been wrong. Parker could be evil. And maybe, maybe, Parker could be Spider-Man. But Spider-Man couldn’t be evil. It wasn’t possible. All those times he’d saved everyone... unless he set those up too.   
An instagram notification paused the video. Flash blinked at it, allowing it to fade away on its own. That’s right. Instagram. He was one of the foremost experts on Spider-Man, and his fans would need to hear from him. He pictured them, logged in, insistently refreshing the app, waiting for him to appear.   
Without further thought, Flash flicked on a live stream. He looked into the camera, took a deep breath, and felt every coherent thought he’d had in the last 10 minutes flee his brain.   
A second passed, and then another, and Flash watched his own distraught face on the screen. Finally he cleared his throat.   
“So that... um... that happened.” It was the lamest possible thing he could say and he cringed. His fans were waiting for his opinions and his guidance and that was all he could give them?   
Yeah. It was. He looked at the stream comments, a flood of confusion that mirrored his own mind, and understood what he needed to do. “I don’t know. I’m as in the dark as you. But my man Spidey isn’t evil. I don’t know what’s up with that video, but he’s not- he wouldn’t do that.” Flash tore his eyes away from the camera for a second, for once in his life weighing whether this next line was a good decision. “Hey, Spidey, that guy in London said you watch these. Just... pick up when I call, okay?” He hesitated. “If I call you. Call me? Uh, nevermind.”  
He killed the stream, ignoring the incoming messages from his followers. There was only one of them he cared about right now.   
His fingers flew across the screen and in seconds his thumb hovered over Parker’s number, saved under ‘Penis Parker.’   
It wasn’t possible. It wasn’t. Flash pressed call.   
Parker didn’t answer right away and he almost hung up. Every ring was another round on the torture rack for Flash’s nerves. And then the rings stopped altogether.   
Parker didn’t say anything at first, and Flash was not about to start this conversation. His breath hung in his throat as Parker’s came in ragged gasps.   
“Look, whatever this is, I’m not up for-“  
“Is it true?” Nothing else mattered, not now, not ever. If only he could convince Parker he meant that.   
He heard Parker sigh heavily on the other end of the line. “I didn’t kill anyone. The video was edited, that wasn’t what-“  
“You’re Spider-Man.” It wasn’t a question, and Flash bit his tongue at the incredulity in his own voice.   
“Yeah.” He sounded so defeated and Flash prickled. Spider-Man had faced countless dangers and saved so many people, just because he could, and this is what took him down? “Look, I really can’t talk now, I have to get away from the angry mob. They’re gonna figure out how to get on this roof eventually”  
“I’ll come get you.” The words were out of his mouth before he thought them. “My dad’s car’s convertible, you can swing in it, and I’ll just drive off-“  
“So you can corner me and get me on your vlog? I’ll pass.” The venom in Parker’s tone surprised Flash.   
“I- I want to help you, man.” There was silence and he could feel the glare of his hero through the phone. “No. I mean it. Whatever I’ve said before, however much we hate each other, the world needs Spider-Man. Whatever I can do to help fix this.” Parker still didn’t answer. “No vlog. I promise. I’ll even delete it. Say the word, it’s gone.” Flash closed his eyes as if bracing for a punch. If losing the vlog meant getting Spider-Man’s trust, he’d do it, but he didn’t have to like it.   
“Corner of fifth and twenty first.” Flash couldn’t breath again. Spider-Man needed- and asked for- his help. “Keep the vlog. Tell them the whole thing’s fake. It’s not me. I’m too lame, right?”  
“Yeah! I- I mean, you’re not lame, er, that’s not what I’m gonna say, you’re like super lame, the biggest loser ever. Not really! I’m on my way now.”   
Parker hung up immediately. Flash stared at his phone for a second, lit up with social media notifications that a half hour ago had been his world. He switched the phone off and reached for his dad’s keys. 

Liz  
The TV was muted but it was clearly still discussing Spider-Man. Videos of his exploits flashed across the screen. Liz drummed her fingers against the edge of the couch. Something about this felt wrong.   
Actually, so many things about it felt wrong. She’d been there. He saved her, and her classmates. He didn’t have to. She supposed that could have been staged too, but he was so desperate. That was a hard thing to fake.   
But there was a lot that added up, too. Peter was on that trip, and had disappeared for a while. He was in Europe during ‘Night-Monkey’s’ brief rampage. And the night her dad was arrested. Prom. He’d left her standing there, and something in his eyes had said that leaving was the last thing he wanted to do.   
So, Peter was Spider-Man. She could believe that.   
But was he a villain? Staging everything so he could swoop in and save the day? Did Peter have it in him to cause countless deaths, as callous as the Spider-Man on the screen had? She’d cursed his name plenty after her dad was arrested, but she knew deeper down that her dad had been a threat. If not by himself, then by virtue of the people he sold the weapons to.   
The video before her was one of her prom night, taken by an aerial drone surveying the situation. Spider-Man limped away from a growing fire, her dad slung across his back. Liz reclined on the couch, wonder creasing her brow. No, Peter couldn’t kill all those people. He couldn’t even let one person die, one person who had tried to kill him minutes before.   
But the video... was all talk. Peter wasn’t doing anything in it. And it’s all too easy to edit audio over a video that doesn’t match. Liz nodded to herself. That settled it then. Peter and Spider-Man were the same person, who was not a super villain, but had been framed to be one.   
But framed by who? Well, that Mysterio guy was out of the question, but, it was an awfully big operation for one person. Maybe he had friends. She’d have to figure it out eventually. Her curiosity would eat her if she didn’t. There was really just one thing she needed to know immediately, and there was one person who could tell her.   
Calling an inmate is quite a process. Liz drummed her fingers against her arm, trying her best to be patient. Finally the hold music ended.   
“Hi, honey. Is everything okay? You usually only call on Sunday.” Her dad’s voice was so familiar and comforting Liz wanted to stay in it forever and never confront the feelings she was actively taming. But she had to know.   
“Did you know? Did you know he’s Spider-Man?”   
Liz held her breath. She wanted with all her heart for him to say no. If he said no, then only one person important to her had been lying.   
She could hear him readjust his grip on the landline phone. “I did.”  
Typical. Of course. Of course he did. “Did you tell anyone?”  
“I did. It’s funny, he was on TV a while ago, wearing a fish tank.”  
“I have to go now.” Liz tried not to let him know she was crying. She didn’t know why exactly.   
He tried to tell her goodbye but she’d already taken the phone from her ear. The feelings of betrayal and hurt she’d been ignoring swarmed to the surface and she tried to talk herself out of them. There were reasons she couldn’t know. It was safer. But her father had known and had kept it from her. And if she asked that geek, Ned, she bet ten to one he knew too.   
So she was the last to find out, so close to the center of the story and yet left out of the important part. It took everything in her to not throw her phone into the wall.   
These idiot men, in trying to protect her, had left her in the dark. Again, just like with her father’s business ventures. If she’d just known instead of having her world suddenly ripped apart.   
Liz twirled her phone around in her hands. She needed to go walk her dog now. She needed to move on. Life would continue, and she could be as angry as wanted, as long as she still took the trash out and washed the dishes while she fumed. With or without her dad, with or without Spider-Man, she would go on.


End file.
